Friday, July 7, 2017

Who lives in this world without doing some action, even if it were nothing more than breathing? And yet, none of these actions is thoroughly complete, because it lacks the correct basis. We perform many actions mechanically, perfunctorily, without knowing why. Both knowledge and devotion are necessary for correctly and fully understanding who or what 'I' am. One may discuss threadbare the philosophical statement 'it is brahman alone which is the true Reality; all else, all creation, is but a shadow'; and yet, experiencing that Reality involves some action.
Religious service only becomes effective if we recognize the true nature of God. This calls for an undoubting faith in the sadguru or a saint, faith just like that of a child feeding at the mother's breast. What can be achieved by such simple, unadulterated, 'blind' faith cannot be attained through the eyes of 'knowledge'. So approach God with the trust of an infant in its mother. What hinders such an approach is my 'knowledge', my 'wisdom'. God enfolds devotees freely because they approach Him with a childlike mind.
Many are the ways to attain God. The saints advocate the simple way of constant awareness of God; that is, we may go through worldly life so far as the body is concerned, provided we give our heart and soul entirely to God. Nothing will be of real avail unless the mind becomes steadfast, and that can happen only when it has an objective which is itself steady and everlasting, and the faith in it is unshakable. Faith is necessary for achieving anything in paramartha, just as love is necessary if prapancha is at all to be worthwhile.
A man is what his faith is, irrespective of his station in life. We should trust in God and follow our worldly duties fearlessly, without fighting shy of them.
If the queen bee of a hive is removed, the thousands of workers and drones that inhabit the hive automatically leave it; so, too, if the 'body-am-I' feeling is got rid of, the host of thoughts, fancies, doubts, that throng the mind will automatically vanish. The knowledge that comes when one is free of the 'body-am-I' feeling, is alone true and all-pervading; and it is this knowledge that brings perpetual, self-sustaining contentment; and this pure contentment is the true vision of God.
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